Wilfred Roussel

Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou

Wilfred Roussel was first elected to the Legislative Assembly on September 22, 2014, as the member for the riding of Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou.

In June 2016, he was appointed to the Legislative Instruments and Regulations Board, a Cabinet committee. He is also Chair of the Standing Committee on Private Bills and a member of the Standing Committee on Crown Corporations, the Standing Committee on Estimates and Fiscal Policy, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, and the Standing Committee on Social Policy.

On January 26, 2015, he was appointed to chair the New Brunswick section of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie.

He has a bachelor’s degree in social science from the Université de Moncton, and he completed a master’s program at the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP) in Hull, now Gatineau, Quebec. He is also trained in real estate sales and wine-making.

Wilfred Roussel is a native of Le Goulet, a coastal village in the Acadian Peninsula.

Mr. Roussel’s work experience is diverse. In 1975, he became a journalist and later served for seven years as editor and CEO of Éditions du Nord, in Caraquet. The company owned four weekly newspapers and a commercial printing business. Mr. Roussel then served for nine years as CEO of the Association de la presse francophone, in Ottawa. In 1989, he served as founding vice-president of the first Congrès mondial acadien and was then its CEO from 1992 to 1995. He then moved to Quebec, where he worked as a consultant before becoming CEO and editor of the newspaper division of Transcontinental Group in Montreal.

In 2006, he became an entrepreneur as the owner of an orchard and cider mill in Rougemont, Quebec. That was when Mr. Roussel started wanting to return home. The label for his ice cider, called Banquise, bore an illustration of pack ice that had been photographed from his home. He also realized that he was starting to promote his home region more than his cider. He told himself it was time to go back home.

Wilfred Roussel returned to the Acadian Peninsula and quickly got involved in local politics. He was elected Mayor of Le Goulet, his hometown, in 2012. He was also the first President of the Acadian Peninsula Regional Service Commission from 2012 to September 2014.